FOI/202300375302 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Communications regarding Energy Statistics Hub: EIR release
Information requested
1. Please provide all internal Scottish Government discussion of the data on this page of the Energy Statistics Hub, from 1st December 2021 - date. (ie how the data was constructed, what assumptions were used, how were they justified, etc…) https://scotland.shinyapps.io/Energy/?Section=ConsumerEngagement&Subsection=Bills&Chart=AverageBillLA
2. In addition, please provide all Scottish Government correspondence (including Ministers, Civil Servants, Special Advisers, and Press Officers) with parties outside the Scottish Government which discuss the above data, from 1st December 2021 - date.
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
I enclose a copy of all internal and external emails about the discussion of the data on the average annual energy bill prices by local authority page of the Energy Statistics Hub.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Detected exemption language
We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.